I love these envelope liners designed for a breathtaking wedding at the Ojai Valley Inn. Vines climb up these custom liners in white ink with an embossed pattern of climbing vines over the top.
A reception for the ages….and rare that I get to help set up in person!
Pro Pics (which these are not!) are from Jen Fariello, Florals by Springvale Floral, Coordination by Cheers, Darling.
The reception was held a the GORGEOUS DAR in DC, with so many historic details and the most stunning and dramatic columns.
For her reception details, we added a few touches of gold here and there. We started with gold gilded table numbers, then went to gold calligraphy for the place card calligraphy, and gold calligraphy detail on the menus.
The menus were unusually large and designed to sit under the plates at each place setting with the napkins and placecards on top.
Between the shortages throughout the industry and the very distinctive shade of blue I was looking for, we ended up going with a custom-dyed silk ribbon to hold all our pieces together. We paired it with a pale pink custom wax seal and vintage styled postage.
Lake Como, Italy
Vintage, saturated, floral, elegant
Our amazing bride, Alexandra, requested two things….a bold, saturated, monochromatic color palette, and florals. We were all over that. I also added touches of rose gold foil and calligraphy throughout the suite to elevate the overall formality of her Black Tie wedding in Italy.
I love getting a project where I get to work with a ton of colors! Granted, the shortages we’re seeing throughout the paper industry right now didn’t make it easy, but I was up for the challenge.
We wanted to go with spring pastels without feeling too much like an Easter church service. I selected very specific shades, including a cool pink, medium rosy purple, spring green, pale blue, and a distinctive shade of cornflower blue.
We had two different envelope liners for this project - one featured the overall toile pattern that we created for the bride, and the second was a sweeping, romantic pattern created from some of the floral festoons pulled from the main toile pattern.
Washington, D.C.
When I created the toile, I also created individual pieces that could be used in a variety of placements throughout her design. The envelope liner was created from floral festoons from the overall pattern, and we highlighted George Washington in his sunglasses on the front of the enclosure envelopes.
We opted for a colored version of her laurel for the invitation itself, and repeated the same style for her placecards. Vintage style postage was a must and we did a custom dye for her silk ribbon to perfectly match her blue.
Each envelope was sealed with a pale pink wax seal with a bouquet from her toile pattern.
The vibrancy of this suite is just perfection - with custom envelope liners, full floral invitations with patterned backers, modern calligraphy, and the perfect wax seal.
How gorgeous are these envelopes!
We used modern calligraphy in a dark blue to match the invitation. Each envelope was printed with original artwork in a tumble down the front of the envelope. The florals wrapped over the top and continue down the back flap to the return address!
I love the wax seal details of this design!
I selected a pale blue to complement the more subtle colors of this design. As an added detail, we added some dried rose petals and a saturated pink to the wax.
So vibrant and colorful! This custom bridal shower invitation is perfect for a summer garden party!
I can’t wait to show you the details!
A seaside suite with formal calligraphy, pale blue vellum envelope liners and overlay, vellum white wax seal, bold coral punches of color, and custom curated postage.
…more from Jekyll Island
Jekyll Island, Georgia
calligraphy | botanical | bright
botanical coral illustrations, flourished calligraphy, bold coral colors, pale blue vellum, themed postage
Reply card sets with two different designs for the envelope liners, bright coral reply card, coral detail on the flat of the envelope, calligraphy return address, and gorgeous vintage postage.
Flourished coral calligraphy on handmade paper, pale blue vellum overlays with coral details printed on white in a frame around the edges, thin silver thread held tight with semi-transparent wax seals, and bold envelope liners.
Newport | Rhode Island
We have some lovely details for the custom designs we’re finishing up for a beautiful wedding in Newport.
We created two different designs for the escort cards to use as meal indicators, and each card had a cluster of gold gilding at the centers of their blooms.
We continued the gilding on the table numbers, which were all gilded by hand.
Likewise, our menus had gilded details in the flower clusters and along the edges of the white handmade paper that coordinated with the invitation suite design.
You know I’m always a huge fan of incorporating the style of the postage into the design of the envelope and overall aesthetic and this suite is an unusual one. Since I know this client personally, she asked if I had any postage that I wanted to burn through (think ancient forever stamps), and I was like….welll….actually….
I have been hoarding leftover custom postage for years. Back in the day when we were able to design custom postage to match an invitation suite, I would order it for clients but then have the half-finished sheets leftover and they’ve just been sitting in my postage box. I can definitely see a consistency in my aesthetic over the years since so much of the postage matches!
So that’s what we used on this suite. Since the envelopes are not only heavy, they’re large and square, I knew I would need a decent amount of postage for each one. Since all the postage I was using was in different custom denominations depending on what the original project dictated, the postage for these baby shower invitations is all over the place! As long as it was enough to get them to their destination!
Envelopes…always my favorite part of an invitation suite. A commonly neglected and always unexpected design element….
This suite featured two different pieces of artwork on the envelope liners, as well as artwork printed on both the reply envelope as well as the mailing envelope. Naturally, we selected blue postage to compliment the overall aesthetic.
I’ve worked with vellum envelopes before, obviously, but this project was a little bit different. Vellum is a beautiful material to work with and I love how nicely it juxtaposes as a complimentary texture to so many other materials. Since I knew we would be using the woodgrain paper for both the invitation and insert, I loved the semi-transparency of the vellum to contrast against that. But here’s the thing…you can see through the vellum. So the question always is how do you protect the privacy of the invitation as it goes through the post? Whatever material is chosen, it also needs to support the guest addresses, meaning that it either needs to be dark enough to support a light address or the other way around.
Examples of how to circumvent this would be to do a vellum wrap in a pattern or a custom tissue paper - I typically like to use custom printed tissue paper with a complimentary pattern that we’ve designed to match the suite. For this project, we didn’t have the turnaround time for custom tissue, so that option was out. A vellum wrap was also out because the envelopes I selected were Marques size - 7.25 square - which means a vellum wrap would need to be at least 15” to wrap all the way around. Vellum prints on a laser printer (yes, I know you can get inkjet vellum, but I have a strong preference for how the ink sits on top using a laser) and my printer maxes out at 12”…so that option was also not available.
So what’s left?
Using the back of the invite and the envelope liner! The envelope liner obviously shows when the guest opens the envelope, but there’s nothing saying that I can’t print both sides so one shows through the envelope and shows when the envelope is opened, so that’s what we did. I matched the heavy pattern for the backs of the invitations and the back of the envelope liner so it created a consistent and cohesive pattern front to back, which I LOVED.
OI course, I didn’t stop there - I also wanted artwork on the outside of the envelope to overlap with what showed through from the envelope liner.
Calligraphy in a deep burgundy and modern style topped them off!
I specifically designed the envelope liner to have a negative space to frame the calligraphy, making it not only the focal point, but also easier to read.
chinoiserie | gold | soft | bold | floral
Newport | Rhode Island
I’m so in love with these blues!
The blues are a perfect pairing for a spring wedding in Newport, Rhode Island. Our bride wanted a touch of the opulence of the venue without going full Victorian for her invitations. She and her family grew up spending their summer holidays nearby and she always loved passing by the Chanler House as a little girl. The invitations were the compromise between the classic Victorian styling of the venue and the more modern feel that the couple preferred as their own personal style.
I selected a white handmade paper with velvety soft edges for the invitation and reply cards, and paired with them with a bold lapis blue for the reception card. I loved the contemporary vibe the blue insert brought to the overall suite. We also selected a modern calligraphy style to pair with the blue watercolor florals.
Lets talk about gold gilding.
One of my favorite details to add is gold gilding to the edge of designs. For this particular design, I also added it to the centers of various blooms throughout the suite, including the reverse of the invitation, the die cut overlay, mailing envelopes, and reply envelopes.
